Who Really Runs the United States? Jamie Dimon

By Bill Bonner, Chairman, Bonner & Partners:

Stock markets have been slipping all over the world, especially in Europe. But outside of Russia, and maybe Greece, so far there is no sign of real panic. That will come later.

We’re spending this week in Washington, zombie watching. Yesterday, we spent the evening in the lobby of The Willard hotel. A choir sang carols.

Hark the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

In one corner a group of cronies sat negotiating a deal; whose ox they were goring we don’t know. Pairs of women sipped their champagne and nibbled their cookies. A few tourists gawked at the splendor of it: a Christmas tree worthy of Yosemite… ceilings rivaling those of the Louvre.

Your editor – his laptop in one hand and a glass of Cabernet in the other – sat in another corner, enjoying the singing and inconspicuously recording events.

As Timeless as Prostitution

Politics is the leading industry in this town. When JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was on line on Thursday, the other end of the line was here. Dimon was adding his backing to the so-called “cromnibus” bill – which, among other things, again allows Wall Street banks to take risky derivative bets with consumer deposits.

Here’s one of our dear readers with the story:

The US House passed a bill repealing the Dodd-Frank requirement that risky derivatives be pushed into big-bank subsidiaries, leaving our deposits and pensions exposed to massive derivatives losses.The bill was vigorously challenged by Senator Elizabeth Warren; but the tide turned when Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, stepped into the ring.

Perhaps what prompted his intervention was the unanticipated $40 drop in the price of oil. As financial blogger Michael Snyder points out, that drop could trigger a derivatives payout that could bankrupt the biggest banks.

Compared to New York, D.C. is remarkably quiet. Not too much traffic yesterday. Few people on the streets in the downtown area. It was quiet, calm, peaceful – like the beginning of a horror movie. Our hotel has a completely different clientele and atmosphere than the boutique New York hotel we stayed in last week.

In Lower Manhattan we saw “hipsters” and artists… publishers and filmmakers. Everyone seemed young and fashionable. The shops were busy. The old buildings – with their industrial windows and loading docks – recalled yesterday’s. Washington, on the other hand, is as timeless as prostitution. Here, men still wear business suits and ties. Women are not quite as chic as New Yorkers.

All look as though they take themselves too seriously… as though the future of the planet depends on what they did today. They must be trying to compensate for the fact that their work – and their lives – are parasitic and pointless.

They come and go in the hotel lobby. One is off to try to pull a little pork out of a Nebraska senator. Another is looking for help with a Pentagon contract. They are all zombies, we reckon, all getting without giving anything of any real value.

Jamie Dimon – Hero

Dimon must be a hero to this crowd…

He is not in politics… and not even a full-fledged master of zombie arts. After all, he must spend some of his time at JPMorgan Chase offering real services – or at least the appearance of them – to get clients to part with their money.

On Thursday, he did the rest of the nation a grave disservice. But in helping to push Republicans and Democrats to the scammy bipartisan “cromnibus” bill, he helped keep the lights on in Washington. The federal government was getting ready to shut down. Then Dimon got on the phone. It was probably a tit-for-tat payback. The feds helped keep his lights on in 2008. Now, he has repaid the favor.

Colleague Dan Denning, newly returned from 10 years in Australia, is appalled. He was a congressional page 25 years ago. All of the twisted roots he saw sink into the D.C. earth in the 1980s have now grown into full-sized trash trees. They now cast their long shadows over Washington… and the nation.

It was in the beginning of the 1980s that President Reagan’s budget director David Stockman lost his famous battle for the soul of the Republican Party. Stockman believed the GOP should remain true to its best traditions and should demand balanced federal budgets. But the progressive wing of the party was more interested in winning elections and distributing pork than in fiscal rectitude. The Reagan administration went on to run some of the biggest deficits in history.

And that was just the beginning.

Among the bits of grease in the $1.1 trillion spending bill passed Saturday night was a provision allowing Dimon’s Wall Street cronies to “donate” up to $230,000 each to the Republicans and Democrats. This will help cement their control of the political process. It was a win-win deal: Dimon got something. And the feds got something.

That must be why the Wall Street Journal labeled it a “rare bipartisan success.” We understand the bipartisan success part: Both Washington and Wall Street benefited. It’s the “rare” part we don’t understand. By Bill Bonner, Chairman, Bonner & Partners.

3 comments for “Who Really Runs the United States? Jamie Dimon”

re statement: “This will help cement their control of the political process.”

It didn’t need cementing, it has existed for decades. All this Bill really does is put taxpayers on the hook, again.

I am so glad not to be American these days. My brother and his wife recently renounced their American citizenship. It will cost them approx. $2300.00 (an exit tax ha ha).

Now that the political process has formally negated any chance of reform or accountability, will this ensure future change/reform is attempted by violence with repressive reaction by the State? What else is left for ‘regular folks’, more candle light marches? Letters to the editor?

The stakes raise by the day and the super rich continue to take more and more. There must be a run on fortified islands by now. I suppose returning vets can find work with private security firms/armies when they return form the neverending wars.

regards

NOTaREALmerican

Dec 17, 2014 at 3:17 pm

About 15 years ago, an acquaintance – and his wife – moved to New Zealand because he got disgusted with the US. He told me he didn’t want his tax money supporting an immoral government anymore. I didn’t disagree with him but thought he was being childish about life. After-all, I told him, governments are always immoral and always have been. He was a “progressive” though, and thought government could be good.

I’m still not sure. I tend to think people like him (and myself) just have Morality OCD. I know I’ve got it. I hope he’s happier giving his tax money to the New Zealand government. At least his money isn’t being used to torture people ( I hope).

Pl

Dec 19, 2014 at 12:05 am

“I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England to rule the Empire. The man who controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire and I control the British money supply.” Nathan Rothschild

If this as the case then I don’t see why it would not apply now.

The Fed is a private entity — why in the world does the US gov’t allow a private entity to manufacture money out of nothing and loan it out – at interest — what a gig!!!

Why doesn’t the gov’t perform this function — and say use the interest to build infrastructure — or reduce taxes?

Why is ending the Fed a non-starter? Why does almost nobody (Ron Paul excepted) ever raise this issue?

Beyond profiting from a business that effectively involves taking paper and putting an ink stamp on it then loaning it out…. Consider the power that one would have if one had the right to print the global reserve currency.

Everyone from the largest corporation — to sovereign nations — to the little guy with a mortgage — would be controlled by you.

If anyone got out of line you could destroy them in a second — take for instance Berlusconi — a few years ago he indicated he was in opposition to an EU dictate — and he went meekly into the night and was replaced by an unelected official — this is the mafia king billionaire sent packing —- what power to be able to do that!!!

If one controls the reserve currency one controls all finance — and one can bankrupt a country in a heartbeat simply by driving up interest rates on their sovereign debt.

Effectively you control the money tap — and if you play ball you will be rewarded handsomely — and if you oppose these guys it is all downside…

Of course one can also control the military similarly — everything leads back to the group that controls the money supply…. why fight them — better to live large and not rock the boat…